Information for Oral Presenters

All oral presentations should be prepared using the latest version of Microsoft PowerPoint. The session room will be equipped with a data projector coupled to a Windows-based computer.

Please let the organizing committee know as soon as possible if other media support (eg., VCR, 2x2 slide projector, etc.) will be needed for your presentation.

Format for oral presentations:

Each presentation will consist of a 12-minute talk followed by 3 minutes of questions/discussion. In general, you should plan for about one minute/slide. In order to stay on schedule, the session moderator will alert the speaker at the 12-minute point and stop the presentation at the 15-minute point.

Below are suggested guidelines for the organization of your talk:

Background (1-3 slides): Provide general information on the topic, including the rationale for the study. Cite relevant studies by others/self. State your hypothesis. Provide enough information so that the rationale and purpose of the rest of the talk is evident to the audience.

Results (4-6 slides): Provide data to help the audience form an opinion regarding your hypothesis. Be sure the slides clearly illustrate the point you want to convey to the audience. For comparisons, charts are generally better than tables.

Summary and Conclusion (1-2 slides): Briefly summarize key findings from the data. How do your results compare to published studies? Provide a brief critique - provide your own assessment of the experiments. Were they well designed, well performed, did they yield meaningful data, did the data make sense, what improvements in the studies are needed?

General oral presentation tips:

Do not just read from your notes or the screen.

Resist the temptation to overload the slides with information - more material may mean less communication.

Tell the audience what you are going to tell them (introduction), tell them (results), and tell them what you have told them (summary).

Point out the “take home” message of each data slide.

Have a good transition between slides. Your comments/ideas at the end of one slide should logically lead the audience into the topic of the next slide.